blood and thunder

sensationalism, violence, or exaggerated melodrama: a movie full of blood and thunder.

Origin of blood and thunder

First recorded in 1855–60

Hugo's melodrama suited Verdi's blood-and-thunder style exactly.

The Opera |R.A. Streatfeild
So I made St Andr publish a blood-and-thunder proclamation threatening death to any one found tampering with our wires.

The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade |Edward Lord Gleichen
We had never seen that weird species of pumpkin, and Will embroidered a blood-and-thunder narrative.

Last of the Great Scouts |Helen Cody Wetmore
Look at all the blood-and-thunder novels will you, that are turned out every year by the hundred.

An American Hobo in Europe |Ben Goodkind

Even a blood-and-thunder story of the Russian police was turned on as a serial story in their daily papers.

What Germany Thinks |Thomas F. A. Smith

blood-and-thunder

denoting or relating to a melodramatic adventure story